Staycation, Day 1 & 2: Walking Through History

On the heels of the 352 day deployment (not that I was counting days or anything!), Robert gets block leave, a chunk of vacation that’s supposed to give him time to catch up with family and work on that honey-do list that grew around the house while he was away.

Lucky for me, I have bosses that understand that even though I didn’t deploy, I needed the block leave too.  

We’d kicked around going somewhere tropical but the last thing Robert wanted was to get on yet another plane (can’t say I blame him there!) so we decided a staycation would be perfect. We’d stay home, go on a few little adventures, and just use the time to catch up. Our two weeks of fun began yesterday, at 4 a.m. because we have a puppy who doesn’t understand “sleeping in”. I suppose he was just helping us to make good use of our time. J

I needed new tires on the car and an oil change so we hopped in the car and took Chet on a visit to my parents’ house, out in the country where he could romp and play. Robert hadn’t seen my grandparents since our wedding so we swung by their house too; Gus  and Robert took a walk down history lane in my grandfather’s tobacco museum. As much as Gus loves telling those stories, Robert loved hearing them; it was like watching two kids in a candy store and a great way to start our staycation.

This morning we continued our walk down history lane with a trip to the Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science in downtown Raleigh. As soon as we stepped out of the car, the bottom fell out and by the time we got to the museum door, we were drenched! We laughed and decided that maybe it was fitting that we were soaking wet while we learned about the ill-fated “unsinkable” ship.

If you’re even the slightest bit interested in the RMS Titanic or history in general, this exhibit is a must see! Each ‘passenger’ is given a boarding pass that details an actual passenger on the ship. I was a second class passenger who was transferred to the Titanic after a coal strike caused my original voyage to be cancelled (wouldn’t that be just my luck!?!). Robert was a wealthy landowner who had actually medaled in fencing in the 1908 Olympics. At the end of the exhibit, we were pleased to learn that we were both listed in the survivors of that tragic night. I’ve always found the mysteries of the Titanic’s demise interesting, but having the personal details of actual passengers made it that much more so.

I’d say our staycation is off to a great start… stay tuned for what adventure we have in store for tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope your week has been something you’ll want to look back on when you’re walking down history lane. I hope it was something epic, something remarkable, something MORE.